The blueberries are ripening. They are big, juicy and bitter sweet. They’re thick on the bushes, like grapes on the vine and with the slightest tug they fall off, ready to be popped into a bucket, provided you can resist eating them on the spot.

Mark and Betty Garrison never imagined when they bought more than eight acres on Warwick Neck in 1983 that blueberries would become such an important part of their lives. And Joseph Gouveia, who retired in May as an engineer with the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, and Rhonda Shumaker weren’t thinking blueberries would play a role in their later years.

Fact is, they were thinking disc golf.

Disc golf? We’ll get to that, but first the berries.

It’s the berries that brought the couples together and at the same time play a huge role in preserving eight acres of open space between Rocky Point and Aldrich Avenues.

Gouveia and Shumaker have a sales agreement for the property that includes the Rocky Point Farm, the house the Garrisons designed and built, and, as Joe reminded Mark on Saturday, the John Deere tractor.

Now in his 80s, Mark decided it was time to take another step in life. The farm, with its 2,200 bushes and the demands of pruning, fertilizing and spraying to avert the devastating effects of the winter moth, was wearing. He and Betty were ready to move and ready for another project. They are building a house in Edgewood overlooking Stillwater Cove that should be completed this fall.

But what would become of the blueberry farm?

Even in this market, eight acres on Warwick Neck could command a handsome price. The Garrisons would have plenty of money for their new home. But what might happen to the farm troubled Mark and Betty.

“We developed this place from scratch, planted the blueberries. We’d hate to see it developed into condos,” Mark said.

Betty reminds him that blueberries weren’t their first foray into farming. They started with Christmas trees when they learned that the farming designation offered tax advantages.

The trees proved to be profitable, but an awful lot of work.

As wild huckleberries grew on the land, they thought blueberries might flourish and be less demanding. It was a big undertaking that started with 1,000 seedling bushes.

Now that it’s established, the Garrisons wondered if there was a way to save the farm and still get a reasonable return on the land.

Mark, who is a founding member of the Rocky Point Foundation and has played a key role in efforts to have the state acquire the remaining 83 acres of the former amusement park, talked with people in the Department of Environmental Management (DEM). Might he sell the development rights to the land, as was done with Morris Farm, thereby ensuring that the property remain undeveloped?

An agreement is slated to be reviewed by the Agricultural Land Preservation Commission today, and assuming a positive recommendation acted on by the state Properties Committee, would have the state acquire the development rights. Particulars of the agreement won’t be public until the matter reaches the Properties Committee, but Lisa Primiano in the DEM division of land acquisition and conservation expects the agreement to be finalized this calendar year.

Meanwhile, without that agreement, which depreciates the value of the property, Joe and Rhonda could have never considered buying the farm.

It was disc golf, a sport that has taken hold in other parts of the country, that landed them in Warwick. Joe, 55, plays the game that requires throwing a disc that resembles a Frisbee around a course with baskets in place of holes. The typical course is six acres and Joe and Rhonda turned to a search of farmland in hopes of bringing the sport to either Rhode Island or Connecticut. One of their criteria was that the property be near the water.

They found the Garrison property listing and initially ruled it out.

Then they visited.

“It got us thinking,” says Rhonda, “it would be perfect.”

There was more to it than the land and the berries. It was the Garrisons.

“These folks are what you want to be when you grow up,” says Joe. Joe and Rhonda were introduced to the farm in stages. Joe assisted with the spraying and when they helped put up the netting that protects the bushes from birds – the most taxing of jobs – and were still interested in buying, Mark figured it was for real.

Joe laughs.

He insists it was the tractor.

“Everybody wants a John Deere,” Joe says.

Rhonda, who has the green thumb in the couple, isn’t put off by the prospects of all that needs to be done. They intend to fully operate the business next year.

“We’re very hard workers,” she says.

Rhonda, who is executive director of the South County Art Association, plans to retire soon to assume her role as farmer. She has been with the art association for 13 years.

Rhonda and Joe, both of whom were previously married and have been together now for nine years, aren’t sure how their lives will change other than they will be living here. She has a house in Wakefield. He owns one in Snug Harbor.

They agree without state acquisition of the development rights, neither the sale nor their future as blueberry farmers would be possible.

News that the farm will remain has traveled quickly, as has that picking of this year’s harvest has started. In less than a week, a ton of blueberries were picked. The average harvest for the season is 10 tons, although one year it was 13.

Joe and Rhonda appear undaunted by what they are about to take on.

Mark reminds them he’ll be there to help and, of course, he’ll be picking blueberries.

Betty says they need to freeze 125 pounds of the berries to make it through the year. Blueberries are a custom at Garrison breakfasts.

The one year they failed to pick enough berries was the closest they came to divorce, says Betty.

All laugh, but ensuring the future of the farm has been a cause of the Garrisons. And it appears it will happen.

@C_Cutline:TOO GOOD TO PASS UP: Mark and Betty Garrison flank Joseph Gouveia and Rhonda Shumaker, who will be buying the blueberry farm they built on Rocky Point Avenue on Warwick Neck. (Warwick Beacon photo)